C&P exams

[Hoppy1]

I am 90% and going for IU and the 2 biggest 70% PTSD and 60% back and legs were within the last 18 months so will they send me back for all the different C&Ps for each condition also tinnitus and hearing too. Thanks 

[GBArmy]

Hi Hoppy1 Welcome to Hadit. The answer is Maybe. OK, maybe not re-exams for hearing and tinnitus. But they could, and you should be expecting that they will. If any are designated as being "static", it is less likely that you will be required for those. There is never a straight answer when dealing with the VA C&P process. For example, the VA would possibly re-do hearing and/or tinnitus if it is in your MH condition has as part of your diagnosis that they contributed to your symptoms or aggrevated it. If you have been consistently receiving treatment for your disabilities, and they are worse or at least the same as when you received your disabilities, as long the new evidence is in your file. If you see a private doctor, be sure you get those  records into the system before your C&P's.

[broncovet]

There are circumstances when a new C and P exam is not necessary or required.  Some examples:

1.  The favorable evidence is already documented in the cfile, and is sufficent to warrant an award without a c and p exam.  

2.  "There are "deal killers" where you wont be eligible, no matter what the c and p examiner states.  A couple examples:

       a.  You are ineligible for benefits for reasons such as an inadequate discharge.  

       b.   You are missing any "in service event" or aggravation.  A new C and P exam is highly unlikey to fix a lack of documentation of an injury in service.  

3.  A c and P exam is moot, and what ever the examiner says, wont change that.  An example of this is if you are already 100 percent, plus SMCS, and you apply for tdiu during that same period, it would be moot.  

"IF" you are absent a nexus on a benefit you have applied for, then YOU can take pro active action, such as hiring your own IMO/IME to obtain a nexus.  

      

      

Edited July 4, 2021 by broncovet

[john999]

If VA sends you for a c&p exam go to it.  If you don't go you will surely be denied no matter how good your case is.  With covid it is easy to beg off the exam but it will probably hurt your claim.  The VA scheduled me for an exam but did not bother to tell me.  Sure enough my claims was denied, but I raised hell and got another exam and did win the claim with the same evidence I had before minus the exam.  They do things by the numbers in some cases.  They are not thinking beings.

[pacmanx1]

Depending on how you filled out the TDIU form yes. It falls down to what disability you claimed makes you unemployable. The VA will most likely want to re-evaluate those disabilities to determine if they can grant you TDIU or not.

  

[pacmanx1]

Forgot, normally whenever I have a C & P exam, I always ask why am I at this appointment and what is it for. There have been at least two separate occasions where the VA sent me to C & P exams, and I informed the C & P examiner that I just recently had a DBQ done both where within six months. I showed the first examiner my favorable DBQ and she reviewed it and stated that since I had a favorable opinion, she did not know why the VA made the appointment and I won my service connection. The second time this happened recently within the last ninety days the examiner would not review my DBQ/evidence, but she did go into the Community Care System and pulled it up for herself and I just received a copy of it, and it is also favorable, and I am waiting on my new decision.      

[john999]

Remember when dealing with these contract C&P exam doctors they want to get paid.  This is their major goal.  Your rating means little to them.  If you get a favorable decision or not means nothing to someone who is in it for the money.  Just know what your dealing with when dealing with the VA.  They will treat you for years but when you ask for compensation it is a different matter.